WITH FULL REGULATOR LOCOMOTIVE PERFORMANCE THEN AND NOW

UNMODIFIED Bulleid Pacific No. 34067 Tangmere did a huge amount of work on the main line from when it returned in 2003 until it was withdrawn for overhaul in 2016. In fact, it is my highest mileage steam locomotive, even exceeding the mileage I have had behind No. 35028 Clan Line. Many of the runs I had behind David Smith-owned Tangmere were with ex-Nine Elms fireman Pete Roberts at the regulator and some very fine performances, including the one with a 13-coach load up Martin Mill bank, which is shown in issue 288.

However, even Pete Roberts, master of the art of driving this unconventional locomotive, can’t triumph when circumstances conspire against him. One such occasion was on April 25, 2007, when worked the 11.25 Victoria circular via Tonbridge, Hastings, and Ashford. Disaster struck in the form of operating instructions being ignored, resulting in a very late arrival back into London. We left on time, being banked to Grosvenor Bridge by No. 47245, and as it turned out on this occasion it would have been prudent to have left the diesel on the back of the train, though this was only because of a failure to follow procedure later. We had been stopped by signals have its head down past Stonegate at 75mph before getting adverse signals on the approach to the Robertsbridge stop. We had taken 34 minutes and nine seconds over this difficult 20.10 miles, a loss of five minutes on the impossible schedule.